Research Fellowship

Overview

The Carolinas Medical Center Department of Emergency Medicine supports dynamic programs in both laboratory and clinical research. The emergency medicine research laboratories are active in the areas of pathophysiology and toxicology, especially with regard to cardiovascular, trauma and neural systems. The basic research facilities are housed within the James G. Cannon complex, a five-story, 60,000 square-foot AALAC-approved facility completed in 1992. The Department of Emergency Medicine's research division includes a PhD physiologist, four clinical research coordinators, two lab technicians, a full-time staff assistant and full-time secretary. There are also core facilities available for electron microscopy, histology, scintillation counting, gamma counting and ultracentrifugation.

The research division faculty facilitates intradepartmental, interdepartmental and multicenter studies on a wide range of topics including undifferentiated shock, stroke, ischemic heart disease, asthma, trauma, ultrasound, toxicology and pulmonary embolism. Improving rapid diagnostic modalities is a particular focus of the research in emergency medicine at CMC. This work includes methods related to the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, pre-test probability assessment, ultrasound, advanced electrocardiographic methods and rapid analysis of markers of cardiac injury. Emergency medicine faculty participate as members of the Institutional Review Board, the IACUC and the institutional research review committee and act as mentors for resident research endeavors. The Department of Emergency Medicine accepts one candidate per year into its one-year research fellowship. Residents are encouraged to gain in-depth research experience during a one-month elective in the PGY-2 or PGY-3 year. The department promotes and supports residents' presentations of research results at national scientific meetings.

Each emergency medicine resident completes an academic project designed to expand the breadth and depth of knowledge in the field. The goal of the project is to allow each resident to gain particular expertise in a specific area of emergency medicine, and to understand the process by which the field is advanced. The academic project may be prospective research (clinical or laboratory based), evidence-based appraisal of a particular topic, comprehensive review, or other creative project. Each resident works with a faculty mentor to design, implement, analyze and prepare a publication-ready manuscript for their academic project.